This 26-year-old southern gentleman and savvy businessman was raised in a single parent household along with his sister. Joe is eternally grateful to his mother for all the sacrifices she made while he was growing up. He currently works in real estate investment sales and enjoys spending his free time strumming his guitar, tossing around a football and hanging out with friends. He is definitely a man who takes pride in hard work and being a Texan.

Joe truly is a genuine Texas Cowboy. After a rigorous selection process in combination with a high GPA from the University of Texas at Austin, he was selected to join the Texas Cowboys, which is a service organization where members act as ambassadors for, according to Joe, "the greatest university in the world," the University of Texas. When he is not working or volunteering his time, Joe enjoys playing basketball and golf in addition to spending time working out and running.

He feels that he will be the next person to win SURVIVOR because he is dedicated, goal oriented and plans to use a strategy he calls "persuade and evade." He intends to constantly look for alliances and win challenges, all while staying just below the radar. He doesn't like overly dramatic people and hates to lose. Unfortunately he may be faced with both in his attempt to become the next sole SURVIVOR.

Joe Dowdle is single and resides in Austin, Texas. His birthday is June 29.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Survivor: Tocantins took a disappointing turn this week as Joe Dowdle's leg infection forced him home and canceled the need for a Tribal Council. Though show medics feared the infection might cost the Texan his leg or even his life, he's now fully recovered, and spends his days working in real estate and playing music around Austin. He talked to us about his picks to win and why it's best to be up-front about who you are.

TVGuide.com: Hopefully you're talking to us with two legs.Dowdle: Yes, I am, fortunately. Got a little scar on there.

TVGuide.com: Can you tell us exactly how the infection got so bad?Dowdle: It was one of the immunity challenges and it was the one where we were pushing the blocks. We were stacking them up. I scraped it. And then in that lacrosse slingshot challenge I think it got infected because later that night it started aching, and then that morning it was inflamed and it just kept going.

TVGuide.com: But it didn't hurt too much? You really wanted to stay in Tocantins.Dowdle: No, it was very painful, dude. I was relieved as much as I was disappointed to leave. It was painful toward the end, you know? ... What I do know is my mental game was mainly focusing on my leg. So toward the end, I really didn't have the focus and the energy and the concentration to actually play the game, so that would have been a huge problem, going forward, obviously.

TVGuide.com: Now that you can watch this as an observer, who are you rooting for and who do you think is in the lead?Dowdle: I think Taj, Stephen and J.T., they're all in a good spot. ... Tyson and Coach are getting involved, and it looks like Erinn is ready to play the game based on last night. I'm rooting for Jalapao [the tribe in which he competed].

TVGuide.com: We talked to Spencer a while back and he said one of the reasons he didn't come out to other competitors is that some of you were from Texas and the South ó that because of that you might not be supportive of his being gay. Is that true at all?Dowdle: That's not true at all. I would've liked to have seen Spencer just come out with who he is and played the game like that because I think in hiding one part of your personality you take away from what you're capable of.

I was pulling for my fellow Austinite but there was no way he could stay and I'm glad he wasn't humiliated at TC with that fake idol. (Not to say it isn't amusing to see it go down when they think they have the real idol...)

I was pulling for my fellow Austinite but there was no way he could stay and I'm glad he wasn't humiliated at TC with that fake idol. (Not to say it isn't amusing to see it go down when they think they have the real idol...)

Actually, I was really hoping that he would use it! But if he was from my area, then I would probably would not want him to use it either.

Throughout all of the seasons of CBS' Survivor, injuries haven't taken too many survivors out of the game. It all started with Michael back in Outback during the second season of Survivor when he fell into the fire hands-first. Last week on Survivor Tocantins it was Austin, Texas Real Estate salesman, Joe Dowdle, who was bitten by the injury bug and had to be air-lifted to hospital after nursing an infection that wouldn't go away.

Although Joe made it to the Survivor Tocantins merge, the ex-Jalapao tribe member couldn't hang around long enough to form new alliances since Survivor host Jeff Probst noticed the cut on Dowdle's knee was swelling out of control. However, the Tocantins twist in the episode came after the merged Jalapao tribe members took control of the game but were told there wouldn't be a Tribal Council due to Joe's injury. After Jeff let the newly merged "Forza" tribe know they'd be continuing the game minus a tribe mate, Joe was air-lifted to hospital in Brazil to make sure the injury didn't put his life in jeopardy.

The morning after the most recent episode of Survivor Tocantins, we grabbed our Survivor first-aid kit and headed for the phone lines to chat with the now ex-Survivor Tocantins tribe member, Joe Dowdle, to find out when the injury happened, when he knew that he was out of the game, how he was going to play the fake immunity idol, and what it was like to crave peanut butter pizza.

THE DEADBOLT: Since we didnít see a typical ending at Tribal Council, are you going to be the first jury member?

[Survivor Tocantins CBS] JOE DOWDLE: I am not. I missed the jury.

THE DEADBOLT: When did you actually injure your knee?

JOE: It happened at the immunity challenge where we were rolling blocks and stacking them up, still with Jalapao, I scraped it. And then at the lacrosse slingshot one I fell and kind of felt some stuff go in there and I woke up the next morning and it was already off and running.

THE DEADBOLT: Oh, so you injured it way back when Jerry got voted off?

JOE: Yeah, and it just progressively got worse and worse, as you saw.

THE DEADBOLT: As soon as Jeff told you to hang back for medical, did you have a feeling that it was all over right then?

[Survivor Tocantins CBS] JOE: My first natural thought was that they were going to tell me the idol was fake, because I suspected it all along. I donít know why I thought that. But then, yeah, once he said the medics were going to come over I realized they were going to really lean on me hard to take me out of there. It wasnít really a decision on my part. It seemed more like a policy for them, like they had already decided it.

THE DEADBOLT: So before the infection took you out, how were you going to steer the game with the fake idol?

JOE: I was going to use it for fire wood, man. I was going to show up at Tribal Council and drop it in the fire.

THE DEADBOLT: [laughs] But at the time you didnít know it was fake, did you?

JOE: I considered the possibility. Iím being honest, and I wasnít sold on it at all, actually. When I recovered it, I had my adrenaline pumping, got it .. You know, my first thought was it was this yarn with beads on it, which it was, and thatís why I didnít give it to Syd and thatís why I never played it. But I wanted it to be real, I tell you that much.

[Survivor Tocantins CBS] THE DEADBOLT: Last week I asked Sydney why you didnít give her a heads up to how the tribe was voting. I know you didnít tell her about the idol, but why didnít you tell her what was going to happen?

JOE: I did tell her what was going to happen.

THE DEADBOLT: Okay. But we really didnít see that on TV and she didnít really allude to that either.

JOE: Yeah, I let her know, man. J.T., Stephen, and I talked, and we went back and forth between Taj and Sydney, and obviously I didnít know anything about Taj, and now I know why they voted the way they did and I let Syd know. I was like, ĎI think theyíre going to vote for you. I trust you. Iím going to stick with you.í And thatís what happened, man.

THE DEADBOLT: Which challenge was your favorite?

JOE: [laughs] The ones we won. No, probably the one where we were spinning everybody around. That was kind of fun to watch happen.

THE DEADBOLT: Since Jalapao didnít have the numbers on their side, who were you looking to hook up with after the merge?

[Survivor Tocantins CBS] JOE: Well, I wanted to reach out to Erinn and utilize that relationship after the merge. And I kind of primed that up to her, as she could even out our numbers and sheíd be safe and all of that good stuff.

THE DEADBOLT: Thatís not a bad plan.

JOE: Yeah, I actually did do some strategizing in the game. It doesnít really come off like that, though.